I’m Robby, and I’m a non-native English speaker. Throughout my entire life I’ve always wanted to speak in English fluently, but because of the way English is taught in schools, I always struggled with my spoken English.

Then, one fine day, after years of constant pursuit of English fluency, I realized the key aspect of spoken English improvement – learning English phrases and word combinations instead of studying grammar rules and trying to construct sentences in your head from scratch!

If you’re interested in improving your English fluency too, please check out the English Harmony System which is a product I created to help all my fellow foreigners to better their spoken English and achieve so much more in professional, social and personal life.

How to Develop Your Ability to THINK in English

We all speak our native languages fluently, quite naturally. The speech formation happens instantaneously and we don’t actually differentiate between a number of subsequent processes taking place when we speak.

If I asked you to draw a simple scheme of a speech process when you speak your native language, you’d probably come up with something like this:

By and large it’s quite correct – we think in our native language and after a short while we produce speech in the process. If you think that it’s not true and you’re capable of producing speech at the exact time of thinking – read this article. You’ll find out that it actually takes 600 milliseconds for our speech producing organs to catch up with our brain! It’s not a huge lag, and in real life we all have an impression we can think out loud.

Anyway, the scheme above represents what goes on when you say something in your native language, and thinking and speaking are two separate processes. But now comes the tricky part of the process. I think that we’re missing a link right before the thinking stage…

Are you slightly confused? Are you thinking “What is Robby talking about? What other process takes place in my brain before I think? Surely thinking comes first and everything else follows it!”

Well, I haven’t got any proof that my theory is correct, but I believe that an ABSTRACT CONCEPT comes first ❗

It’s not verbalized. It’s an idea. It’s something that you kind of FEEL even before you start having actual thoughts in your language. It’s not easy to explain, but I’ll try to provide an example so that can understand what exactly I mean by this abstract concept.

You have to picture the following scene. You’re waking up in the morning. You open your eyes. You’re feeling unwell – you’ve sore throat, blocked nose and a fever, too. Now try to focus on this feeling and tell me – isn’t there an abstract concept of taking a sick day forming in your mind even BEFORE you have the conscious thought “I have to ring in sick…”? Isn’t there? That sort of a feeling, awareness if you like, that isn’t verbalized YET, but you just KNOW that it’s there?

Maybe I sound mad, but I strongly believe that everything begins with an abstract concept. Our thoughts. Our plans. Our daily activities. They all begin as abstract, vague ideas hovering in our minds and they have the potential of being transformed into thoughts and then spoken out:

I might even take this concept a step further and claim that at any given time we all have at least one or more dormant abstract concepts present in our minds. I think it takes some stimuli to awaken them and initiate active thinking process when you can actually make out words floating around your mind.

I won’t, however, elaborate on the above concept in this blog post – instead let’s get straight to the point and look at the biggest mistake made by foreign English speakers:

For a number of reasons English learners and even quite advanced English speakers assume that once you speak a foreign language, the translation stage is inevitable. It’s being made our second nature in school English studies by using bilingual dictionaries and memorizing new vocabulary as a direct translation from our native language into English. We also encounter the translation process on a regular basis – movie subtitles, manuals that come in multiple languages, Google translation tool… It all adds to the general consensus that the translation stage between languages can’t be avoided and you become convinced that once you speak your own language you need to translate to speak in English.

But what if you could eliminate the translation process? Wouldn’t it speed up your English speech, for example?

Just think about it for a second. If it takes your mouth more than half a second to produce speech following a thought in your brain, what about the extra time you spend translating the thought from your native language into English? It definitely adds more time to the whole process and the resulting speech is often slow, hesitant, and it’s easy to get stuck for words if you keep translating from your native tongue into English in your head.

By the way, these symptoms characterize the typical English fluency issue and translating in one’s mind from native language to English is a definite no-no if you want to be fluent!

But here’s the key to improving your spoken English and approaching near-native English fluency – and I think you’ll be a bit surprised reading this…

Stop Thinking in Your Mother’s Tongue!

Yes, you need to eliminate the translation link, but you also need to eradicate the very process of thinking in your native language!

If you already think English – fair enough, you’ve mastered the skill and you can skip the rest of this article.

If you still keep having two “layers” of thoughts in your mind – your native language AND English – then keep reading, this is for you!

So, what you basically need to do is the following – you need to learn to verbalize the ABSTRACT CONCEPTS into English. You need to make your speech process look like this:

First you have the abstract concepts and images floating in your mind. Then comes thinking process in the language you speak, and then you produce the actual speech. Once you do away with the translation between your native language and English, your speech becomes more fluent and automatic. It’s of course easier said than done, so here’s a really good piece of advice on how to achieve the state of mind when you’re able to think in English without getting your mother’s tongue involved.

YOU HAVE TO GET INTO HABBIT OF SPEAKING IN A CONTROLLED, STEADY MANNER!

Remember when we analyzed the speech process in the very beginning? You probably didn’t realize prior to it that our thinking process and speech are two separate processes because they’re so closely bound, right?

Well, you see – now you can use this fact to you advantage and make your brain THINK in English by SPEAKING English. The speech process is so closely bound to your thoughts that it will make it quite hard for you to think in your native language when you have a steady and controlled speech going on.

If you try to speak too fast though, you can lose the concentration and your native language words can start mixing in ❗

I’m not saying it won’t happen AT ALL when you speak in that slow and controlled manner. But it won’t be as bad as when you try to match a native English speaker in terms of speed and have English thoughts mixing with your native language in your head.

So your perfect English speech process follows this pattern – an abstract concept – thinking in English – speech. Well, in reality all you’ll feel is the speech because the feedback between your mind and mouth is nearly instantaneous. However, it is necessary for you to understand the very nitty-gritty of the speech process so that you can accept that it is possible to stop translating from your native language when speaking English.

Once you’ve grasped the very concept of abstract ideas being as the primary source of “content” for your brain to “feed” on (not thoughts in your native language as you might have assumed previously), you’ll find it much easier to eliminate the translation link from the English speech process equation.

I guess it’s going to take some time for you to master thinking in English because you’ve been speaking your native language for as long as you remember yourself, so the very thinking process inevitably associates with mother’s tongue. It’s kind of – “How can I stop thinking in my language, it’s so deeply ingrained in my brain that it’s impossible to start thinking in English!”

Well, as I said, the trick is to actually SPEAK English as often as you can.If you try to ONLY THINK in English – yes, you can mess up your mind even more (watch a video about it HERE!) because there’s no solid ‘stuff’ (like SPEECH) for your English thoughts to stick to. Once the speech process is engaged, however, it’s much easier to maintain clarity of your English thoughts as you wield more power over speech than your thoughts which can often take course on their own.

I can say it after my own experience over the years – constant English speaking practice will help you think English and gain spoken English fluency! You can even quietly speak with yourself in English when you’ve no-one to talk to instead of thinking something silently at yourself in your native language!

I know how you feel Hansy, I made a post above if you want to read it.

However, I often describe the way of thinking as this:

If I think “female”

I don’t think the word female or woman or even girl

I don’t visualize the figure or face of a woman either

I simply think the concept of a female, no words or figures.

I am a native English speaker learning Japanese, I can think female and come out with “onna” or the kanji for woman or I can think girl which conceptually you think of as a young female and get “jyoshi”.

The problem is with more complex thoughts, but my assumption is, based on my experience, this will come with fluency. The more competent you become the more your brain will do the same translation it always does.

The reason why you translate now is because you haven’t grasped it completely, you still need to parse it out in your head.

Once you get it down, because of how you think, you likely will automatically translate directly into English without even thinking about it.

Josh Reynolds

I’m a native speaker doing this in reverse (English to Japanese). Like Hansy in this same thread I am an abstract thinker though I don’t have any learning disabilities. I often describe it as thinking in concept myself. It’s extremely rare to find someone that thinks in this way in my experience. However, after doing research on the subject it seems the proper term is Pattern Thinking or Systemic Thinking.

I think the idea of starting in the abstract and finding the words for something is actually more so a sign of the pattern thinker rather than how everyone thinks as there are both verbal and visual thinkers as well. I would assume a verbal thinker thinks of the words and the visual thinker sees it as an image.

So it’s possible you are simply like us in the way you think, which is actually quite rare. Though there seem to be a lot of visual thinkers that also have to translate their thoughts into words.

I also can’t speak to how verbal thinkers actually think, but I suppose they could just think in a single word and expand the thought from there.

As for whether or not this method will work, I’m not so great at output myself, but it seems like a method purpose built for abstract thinkers and I don’t think abstract thinkers will struggle with translation into another language any more than they struggle with translation into their own once they achieve a decent level of fluency.

English Harmony

I’m sure you’ll make it. All the best !
Robby

Hansy

I believe maybe using concepts or metaphorical feelings, the smell of coffee for when i need to know coffee may help me. I have ADHD and dyslexia, and they told me this is very common to not have verbal way of thinking. Einstein was multilingual and I found out he was similar, he said “the idea comes but i need to find the words”. Speaking out loud is still a good idea I believe, if I just keep saying it, the patterns stick, so I will do that. But it is so hard that teaching languages or learning in professional enviroments is biased to people without learning disabilities. You are right, if I feel the concept, the smell or craving for coffee and translate that into spoken word “coffee” it may be an advantage compared with being stuck with vocabulary. I shall use this weakness as a strength. Thank you robby.

English Harmony

It’s a very good question, but I don’t think that I have the competencies to give you a psychological advice. As an abstract thinker, you will use your brain in the same way, no matter what language your thoughts are speaking. Once you know the concepts in another language, the process of thinking, even for an abstract mind, should come naturally. I always recommend that people should speak out loud, as this is a good way to structure your thinking, but I don’t know if this method will work also in your case.

Hansy

I am not a verbal thinker, I think with concepts, like when a word is at the tip of your tongue, you know it but don’t know the word, I don’t have an inner voice. I am an abstract thinker, how can I apply thinking in another language and modify it so I can use it since I don’t “think”? Like I don’t get up and make coffee and say “I want some coffee now in my head”, I just do it like autopilot. What do you recommend for me?

English Harmony

Thank you

Niwrehs Azua

My very sincere thanks to the author, Robby Kukurs, for sharing his idea about how to learn English without translating thoughts in native language. Your article helps me how to improve my communication skill in English. Hope you will continue to share your precious ideas about learning a language.

NP V

very good and helpful artical for me, i always try to speak English without using my native language but its automatically arrived between my speaking practice in English, when i start bring some thoughts in English, i loose my concentration and after that i leave speaking English…..

But someone begins learning English speaking,he must use his native language or not how he can start to think about his activity materials emotions ideas.
and then according to you he can chang from his mind to English language.

If there is anyone want to practice English please contact me on skype ID red1red1991

neha

i want someone to improve my spoken english. my skype id is staringeagle …feel free to call at any time

jaganpole

hi robby kukurs good morning i am Telugu student , i didn’t no English i am trubul in english so sapard english it is pasibul taking english ,speaking in english,please help me please .this my email;jaganpole204@gmail.com

First of all – I really appreciate you’ve been following my blog for a while and been putting my advice to use – I’m so glad to hear that!!!

Speaking of my own English – it was that bad a while back, believe me! I’ve been in the same situation, I was struggling big time and at times I even thought I was having some sort of a mental issue. So what you’re going through isn’t something totally weird, it’s all part of your overall English improvement trend. ( read this article to understand more about it: http://englishharmony.com/english-improvement-trend/ ).

I know it’s hard to believe it at the moment, but you’re going to get out of it eventually; and it will most likely happen by itself. It used to happen to me all the time – one day I wouldn’t be able to speak at all, the next day I’d wake up and I’d be speaking perfectly.

Why it happens?

I don’t know. It just happens. Everything in nature goes through circles and all human related performance is changing over time; nothing stays the same. So I’d say you should start by ACCEPTING that it’s going to happen and find some comfort and consolation in that fact. It’s kind of having this attitude – “If I can’t do anything about it, why worry?”

Of course it’s not that you can’t do anything, but it’s just to give the overall idea of how the art of ignorance should be implemented in order to help you become more confident; read more about it here: http://englishharmony.com/ignorance/

Next up – self-practice.

Now, you can’t stop doing that. You have to keep on speaking because it’s crucial for your fluency development. Now you may feel you’ve lost all you’ve gained, but nothing could be actually further from the truth! It’s all actually being ‘processed’ by your brain at a subconscious level, so it’s important to keep engaging in spoken practice so that you maintain constant improvement (even though you might think you’re not improving anything!).

Do you find self-practice boring because you’re running out of topics to talk about? Please watch this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIY3VaRiYrE ; it might help because I addressed a similar question in it.

Hi, I have been reading through your website for few months now…I find it really useful and I have tried few of the methods which you have mentioned over here…I have also seen some of your videos posted over in youtube…I tried most of the things which you have mentioned…at one point I started feeling that I have gotten over English language and in most of the places in normal conversation as well as in formal speech I could speak comfortably ..but off late I have started feeling that my fluency has gone down again….and now I feel like I don’t have many words to speak…I take long pauses and speak up incoherently ..I don’t understand what went wrong……..any suggestions from you??…I try speaking up in my room when I am alone…but now I dont feel that zeal to speak up and practice and due to that I seem to have to lost what all I gained in last 3 months…in fact talking about stuff which you normally do also kind of disinterest me and I feel like I am repeating all things again and again…Kindly suggest something for this…Also please tell…were your English too bad when you started it off earlier or you were always little bit aware about English language…and you could speak during most of the conversations…Thanks..

Michael

I’m conducting some polls on important issues of mastering various aspects of English as a second and a foreign language.

Do you agree with the allegations below? I’d appreciate your response.

Differences
between one’s native language and English in pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary and
stylistic usage should not be ignored by foreign learners living and
learning English in non-English speaking countries to master English
thoroughly. When learning and using English foreign learners cannot but
notice those differences between English and their native language.
Knowledge of those differences by foreign learners of English is
essential for understanding correct forms, meaning and use of English
grammar and for vocabulary usage to reduce making mistakes in English as
much as possible, especially in fine tricky points of English grammar,
vocabulary and stylistic usage. Native language interference when
learning and using English by foreign learners is a natural thing
equally as translation is a natural language activity in human
communication. Therefore native language interference when learning and
using English cannot be prevented or eliminated until English has been
mastered by foreign learners as good as their native language. Knowledge
of phonetic, grammatical, lexical and stylistic differences between
English and one’s native language weakens natural native language
interference when learning and using English.

I’m a Latvian living in Ireland for 10 years now. Yes, initially I tried to match natives in terms of their speech speed, pronunciation etc; then I realized it’s not necessary if you want to be fluent. You have to accept your limitations, find consolation in the fact that your English is YOURS, it’s UNIQUE, and go from there!

If you stick with:

* not translating from/to your native language;
* a lot of spoken English practice;
* acquiring new vocabulary in context;
* not freaking out over your mistakes but learning from them instead,

then I can’t see why any foreigner couldn’t attain fluency in the English language!

Innaxpor

Explicit and comprehensive explanation. I’ve suggested your article to friend of mine. It’s good to know that there are people like you out there who try to help others. Well done and keep it up! Cheers mate.

harsh

robby, i liked your videos as u said that u r tried to imitate native speakers and tried to speak fast so which country are u from,actually i face this problem also but i think ur content is o great help.

I know exactly the type of a feeling you’re talking about, and there’s one one remedy – speak slower.Â

It’s been happening to me millions of times in the past (and of course would sometimes happen even now), and I always find that slowing your speech down helps.

Fluency doesn’t equal fast speech; it’s a very popular misconception yet it’s very difficult to get rid of…

Sasa Milosevic

Thank you.

I am journalist and I always try to speak fast, on level of my advanced or proficency colleagues. It i notÂ easy. Sometime I feel as I cannot construct the sentence; as my brain proceess is collapsed; as I fell blockage; as I am tired.

Sometime I am wondering when my colleague say: ” That is O.K, it sounds O.K, or good, Â but I fell as it is not O.K or it is my false feeling.Â I feel unpleasant whenÂ I have to repeat something. You know, it is not good feeling knowing that someone didn’t understand you.

Well, I’m not really sure what you mean by “the way of thinking”. I’m giving enough information in this blog post to make it clear that the two most important things in order to start thinking in English are: 1) eradication of translation between the native language and English; 2) frequent speaking practice; it’s not sufficient only to think English in your mind, one has to accompany the process with speech.nnAnd if you’re lucky enough to know how to think in any language effortlessly, you probably don’t have any English fluency issues this blog is dedicated for. Good for you! 😉

Liveman35

all what you said is right but still the question of how to think in English is ambiguous,you didn’t mention they way of thinking which is the most important thing. For me, I know how to think in any language even if i didn’t learn it beforeu00a0

You’re completely right and that’s also one of the main points in this article. When you don’t speak, there’s more effort required to maintain English thoughts in your head, so speaking is definitely the way to go to “hard-wire” English in your head!

Umer

Can u explain it in other words. I also agree with what ur saying. Think in both languages and speak in both too. But mostly in english.

Umer

Once the speech process is engaged, however, itu2019s much easier to maintain clarity of your English thoughts as you wield more power over speech than your thoughts

Robby, what you’re saying is all true.nnWhen you start thinking in some language, it means you’re doing conscious thinking or u201cthink about thinkingu201d, whereas in u201cnormal modeu201d you don’t think in words as such, you think in concepts.nnLanguage is a skill which one can master to speak without thinking, as if using a tool. Thinking consciously and translating to another language before uttering anything results in hesitant and wrong speech. You don’t need to think about breathing to breathe!nnSo you’re absolutely correct that in order to speak fluently you have to speak as much as possible. Brain gets used to muscle movements, and words are hardwired not through words of one’s native language, but through thought concepts and muscle movements, just as one’s native language is hardwired in the brain.nnThanks for a great post 🙂